Feature lines of vendor-bred spring-drop calves sold for more than 800 cents a kilogram at Wangaratta on Wednesday during a mammoth 3650-head store sale.
The split two-day sale last week included more than 6200 grown and weaner cattle with buyers selecting cattle from as far away as southern Queensland.
Agents said prices for cattle were very similar to the January weaner sale a month ago where steers sold beyond 630c/kg and made more than $2200 a head.
Corcoran Parker director Justin Keane, Wangaratta, said the annual drafts of steers were about 30 kilos heavier on average due to the buoyant seasonal conditions in the north-east.
"It would have been the same cents per kilos as our January weaner sale," Mr Keane said.
It was the first time agents at Wangaratta had combined the sale to offer grown cattle along with their younger siblings, and also the first time the sale was interfaced with online platform AuctionsPlus.
"In the heavy weaners, we had both feeder competition and backgrounders and some of our big feeders did buy smaller cattle to background to go onto feed in May or June," Mr Keane said.
Nutrien Wangaratta livestock manager Daniel Fischer said the sale started with heavy black cattle which commanded prices between 450c/kg and 475c/kg.
"In the first 90 pens the sale rarely fell below $1700 and the majority of the cattle sold between $1700 and $1860 with a top of black weaner steers getting out to $1990," Mr Fischer said.
"The heavier end of the weaner cattle weighed from 325 to 420 kilos and sold to very buoyant rates."
A feature of the sale was an offering of spring 2020-drop calves, aged five to six months, which weighed from 170kg to 255kg and made from $1410 to $1630 and up to 815c/kg.
C & W Thorp, Yackandandah, sold 40 Angus spring 2020-drop steers, 220kg, for $1520 or 690c/kg and then another 20, 173kg, which made $1410 or 815c/kg, topping the sale on a cents a kilogram basis.
Burrayang Pastoral, Markwood, sold 33 Black Baldy spring 2020-drop steers, 252kg, for $1630 or 646c/kg.
Kywanna Pastoral sold 88 Angus spring 2020-drop steers, 186kg, for $1300 or 698c/kg.
"It was unbelievable money," Mr Fischer said.
"AuctionsPlus was very strong on the lighter end of the steer job and most of them ended up going north to northern NSW and southern Queensland."
S & R Jelliff, Mansfield, sold 13 Angus steers, 436kg, for $1990 or 456c/kg.
M & J Fuller, Killawarra, sold 19 Angus steers, 460kg, for $2180 or 473c/kg.
D & P Blay, Whitfield, sold 45 Angus steers, 448kg, for $2100 or 468c/kg.
P & K Del Mastro sold 20 Angus steers, 411kg, for $1900 or 462c/kg.
Elders Wangaratta livestock manager Oliver Mason said several interstate orders including to the Hunter Valley in NSW underpinned the sale.
"There was also plenty of local support and that helped prices trend above rates of other recent sales," Mr Mason said.
AWN Livestock Wangaratta branch manager Peter Dargan said a majority of the steers weighing 380kg to 460kg were snapped up by feedlots.
Steers
Lorna Nankervis sold 18 steers, 411kg, for $1890 or 458c/kg.
A & K Bailey, Benalla, sold 27 Angus steers, 409kg, for $1950 or 476c/kg.
AK & MN Martin, Taminick, sold 15 Angus steers, 389kg, for $1870 or 480c/kg.
RS & NJ Warner sold 34 Angus steers, 385kg, for $1870 or 485c/kg.
Danetree Herefords, Wooragee, sold 18 Hereford steers, 372kg, for $1810 or 486c/kg.
W & G & S Swinburne, Cheshunt, sold 30 Angus steers, 370kg, for $1800 or 486c/kg.
R & C McLelland sold 37 Angus steers, 367kg, for $1785 or 486c/kg.
Rodney Hooper sold 31 Angus steers, 362kg, for $1810 or 500c/kg.
Yacka Pastoral sold 28 Angus steers, 350kg, for $1795 or 512c/kg.
JJ Nolan, Laceby, sold 30 Angus steers, 318kg, for $1720 or 540c/kg.
Chrismont, Cheshunt, sold 28 Angus steers, 311kg, for $1750 or or 562c/kg.
G & D Comerford, Mansfield, sold 19 Black Baldy steers, 312kg, for $1770 or 544c/kg.